ANTICORRUPTION MEASURES IN AZERBAIJAN.

The Internal Affairs and National Security ministries and the General Prosecutor’s Office have announced the arrest of a criminal group of medium-level state officials, police officers and ordinary gangsters from the cities of Baku, Sumgait, Mingechaur and Evlakh. Members of the group are accused of murders and attempted murders, kidnappings for ransom, robberies, bribe-extortion, abuse of power and other crimes. Several members of the alleged network are on the run. Most prominent among those arrested is Colonel Nizami Hojaev, head of the Internal Affairs Ministry’s Investigations Directorate, and a relative of Parliament Chairman Murtuz Aleskerov.

The General Prosecutor’s Office has issued a search-and-arrest warrant for Shahin Hasanov, deputy chief of the fuel-distribution state concern Azeravtoyol, and several of his associates on charges of large-scale embezzlement. Shahin Hasanov is the brother of General Prosecutor Eldar Hasanov, who is said to have resisted the issuance of the warrant. First Deputy General Prosecutor Isa Najafov set the case in motion (Turan, March 12, 13, 15; Azerbaijan (Baku), Millet (Baku), March 13).

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